Abstract
THANKS to the activities of the World Power Conference, data in connexion with the supply of electricity throughout the world are now available. It appears that in 1930 the total capacity of the electric generators used was 114 million kilowatts and that the electric units (kw.h.) generated were 304,000 million. The electricity supply industry represents the largest public utility service in the world, and the capital invested in it almost equals the capital invested in railways. If we take as our unit a 1000 million kw.h., the total output of electricity in North America was 139, of which the United States generated 121, about two-fifths of the total world output. Germany comes next with an output of 29.4, Canada with 17.8, Great Britain with 17.2, Japan with 16.3, France with 15.9, and Italy with 10.8. Owing to the world-wide industrial depression, there is a distinct slowing down of the rate of development during this period as compared with the preceding year. This is mainly due to slackness in the industralised countries of western Europe and North America. Statistics in connexion with the capacity of the dynamos installed raise the question of whether the generating equipment throughout the world has outrun the demands made on it. It is a little difficult to answer this question, but we think that when industry revives there will be an immediate demand for more electrical machines.
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World's Commercial Electricity Supply. Nature 129, 230 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129230c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129230c0